Good morning! Today's Media Roundup is brought to you by Chris.

So far, publishers are keeping subscribers gained during the coronavirus crisis — digiday.com

Are subscriptions for newspapers still booming during coronavirus? Short answer - yes, with an if. Long answer - no, with a but. Current indications are that the sign-up in new subscriber growth is flattening (perhaps related to the resurgence in news avoidance around Covid-19), but that the churn rate for those new subscribers is lower than usual.

According to Lucinda Southern for Digiday, "still, publishers including Bloomberg, The New York Times and The Guardian anecdotally say they are seeing signs of stronger retention rates from subscribers who have signed up since February and March." As the article notes, it is still too early to say whether those subscribers will stick around - this is far from a normal situation, making modelling tricky - but it demonstrates that publishers have a while yet to convince these new subscribers to stick around. All in all, it's a positive development.

News industry set for £50m-a-year boost from VAT cut on digital publications — www.pressgazette.co.uk

Some calculations from Press Gazette indicate that the UK news industry is about to receive a £50m+ boost from the recent cut on VAT for digital publications. Crucially, while the government scheme was ostensibly brought in to save consumers money, Press Gazette agrees with our assessment that publishers are instead going to pass the savings onto themselves. It's a net positive result for publishers, and one that's long overdue.

Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site less divisive — www.wsj.com

This section is the latest in our long-running series 'The Platforms Are Not Our Friends'. As the Wall Street Journal explains, Facebook noted that it was largely contributing to division in society - then shelved the research rather than do anything. Meanwhile, Twitter continues to give Trump a soapbox from which to do the same, in the face of its stated rules. And finally, YouTube is automatically deleting comments that contain phrases related to critical of China’s ruling Communist Party - and has been for six months. These are the contexts that publishers still reliant on social distribution need to factor in. Unfortunately.

Webinar: PPA Live! Women in Leadership — us02web.zoom.us

Women are still underrepresented in lead roles in the media industry. In this webinar from our friends at the PPA, Candice Murray, VP of Editorial for Shutterstock, will be talking to ELLE UK’s Editor-in-Chief Farrah Storr, providing a personal perspective from women who have built successful careers in the media and publishing industry. Sign up now!

Podcast:

Stylist Group CEO Ella Dolphin on transforming the free print magazine to digital subscriptions — voices.media

This week, we spoke to Ella Dolphin, CEO of the Stylist Group. She talked about the acceleration of the title’s plans to adopt a reader revenue model as the free print magazine distribution was put on hold. how that has affected the team’s workflow, and what the focus will look like for the group post-pandemic.

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